The Malaga Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged 15 people and twenty companies for alleged fraud in the sale of fuel between March and October 2020, with the defendants allegedly carrying out a series of operations aimed at not paying value added tax ( VAT). This accusation estimates that the alleged illicit profit amounts to approximately 13.1 million euros.
According to the first conclusions of the prosecution, the defendants, “occupied by mutual consent and with the aim of unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of the public treasury”, would have devoted themselves to the sale of the fuel they had acquired from the tax warehouse to different customers, usually gas stations.
For the public prosecutor, these defendants used operations in these sales “aimed at not paying the 21% VAT in these cases”, which the sale generated, “both by hiding the amount that they should receive for this tax with false invoices, and in companies interposed to those who pretended to be the taxpayer and who, although they declared VAT, did not pay it and did not have the assets to do so.
At the same time, “and with a view to enjoying such an enormous profit with complete impunity”, the money received from end customers who paid the VAT corresponding to the sale, would have “made the obligated commercial companies disappear from the accounts, in different operations and transfers, transmit it to other people controlled by the accused,” specifies the prosecution.
Thus, as indicated in the provisional document of this accusation, they would have acquired goods which were in the name of third parties, natural or legal persons “in an ideal manner both to avoid the patrimonial responsibilities arising from the crime and to, after transformation, benefit illicit profits.” obtained with him.
The commercial companies used were located in the prprovince of Málaga – in Vélez-Málaga, Torremolinos and in the capital Málaga -, as well as in Seville and Madrid. The Civil Guard filed a complaint regarding these events with the Malaga Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, which filed the corresponding complaint in December 2020.
The second section of the Malaga Court held a hearing in November on the accusations and defenses of the defendants in this case in order to set the timetable for the trial which, as Europa Press learned, from judicial sources, would begin in March 2026 with handling preliminary questions.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the activity was carried out “in an organized and stable manner” during the 2020 financial year with an operation planned and directed by one of the defendants, who owned a group of service stations. For its realization, “it was necessary to set up a network of companies which would allow them to avoid paying taxes and to conceal the enjoyment of the profits from their illicit activity”.
For this activity, the main defendant, then also owner of the SAD Football Club of Badajoz, He benefited from the cooperation of two other defendants “in his confidence”, dedicated above all to the management of current accounts and the various commercial accounts serving as a front; and other defendants, including the son of the alleged ringleader, who acted as alleged frontmen.
The prosecution claims that to operate in the hydrocarbon market, the first thing the defendants needed was to acquire a company included in the list of petroleum product wholesalers, published by the National Commission for Markets and Production. To this end, the alleged leader of the operation acquired a company subject to this condition.
A month later, The main accused and his son were arrested for their involvement in the context of what was later a trial before the National Court precisely for VAT fraud on the sale of hydrocarbons, they could therefore not present themselves as responsible for an operator and, supposedly, they had recourse to another accused, who had contact with the client portfolio.
According to this accusation, this operation involved the risk that when the data is cross-referenced or the declarations are investigated, “the Treasury would realize the deception”, Thus, “a conspiracy was created which made it possible to scramble information on the identity of the taxpayer and transfer responsibility for paying VAT to four companies placed as intermediaries”.
“These companies began to carry out the vast majority of fuel sales operations, but only in appearance, because in reality they maintained the operations they carried out, so that their buyers went – with the transport agency that they they had determined – directly to the deposits. to withdraw the fuel they had purchased”, specifies the prosecutor.
Likewise, it emphasizes that in this “dynamic of confusion of commercial assets, assets and transfers of funds without commercial reason or commercial activity or any other purpose than to hinder the traceability of the defrauded money”, the investigations show that in July 2020 “they were in the coffers of CD Badajoz”, managed by the son of the main accused, for an amount of 1.4 million, appears in the indictment.
Furthermore, it is stated that with this operation the defendants “not only managed to transfer responsibilities to these companies”, but since “the agreement provided for not paying VAT, These 21% saved allowed them to sell fuel at a price lower than the market price, exercise unfair competition against operators who have respected their tax obligations.
The defendants are accused of crimes against public finances, falsification of documents or money laundering, depending on the case. For the main defendant, a sentence of 15 and a half years in prison and a fine of 45 million euros are required, accusing him of the three crimes. Furthermore, nine defendants are invited to jointly compensate the Tax Agency to the amount of 13,194,212.15 euros.
